Reviews by number1bum:

Pours a dark brown color, a sort of mahogany really, with a finger and a half of tan head. Keeps a mostly full lace and a nice coating of stick on the side.

Smell is very nice, with a moderately sweet bready aroma to go along with some lightly roasted malt. There is a nutty quality to it as well, plus some caramel.

Taste also consists of a bready, very lightly roasted malt base with some light caramel sweetness. I get some nuts like I did in the nose. Nose was a tad sweeter, although there is a bit more hop character to the taste as there is an earthy, somewhat floral flavor.

Taste - Dark fruits mixed with lager malts, yeasts and chococlate at first sip. Nice combo of roasty, sweet and bitter. Hops add a nice bitter/piney flavor, not at all overpowering though. Pale malts really shine at the finish.

Mouthfeel - Malts and chocolate really coat tounge first, with yeasts and hops coming in on the palate. The aftertaste is malty, chocolate and yeasty sweet.

Overall - Great beer, balanced well, low alcohol and easy to drink. Combine that with a very affordible price , and year round avaiblity, this is a local winner for sure. One of the better dunkels out there.

Poured a nice deep brown color with some ruby hues,nice rocky head that sticks around.Smell was faintly malty and fruity.Taste was of of chocolate malts and a little caramelly with some lingering dryness.Much better than alot of the German styles I have had,very appetizing and sustaining.

Appearance  This lager is super-dark, its almost black, with a modest white head. It sure looks the part.

Smell  The rich maple and molasses are evident at the nose. These malts are complex with little sweetness. I can also pick up a light bready aroma.

Taste  This one delivers on the taste as well. Its all about the malts with all the senses from the nose along with a deeper sense of grain. The sweetness is barely there and its more like bakers chocolate than anything else.

Mouthfeel  This one is right in between light and medium-bodied with some bitterness throughout.

Drinkability  The simplicity of this MDL in and of itself is enough for me to give it the thumbs up, but the malt make-up and lack of nasty American grain means Im officially joining the fan club.

Comments  Thanks to my best BA bud skyhand from bringing this back to Seattle all the way from PA.

Very dark with a good long-lasting head. Moderate body -- a bit higher than a regular lager, perhaps. The main flavor is that of toasted, almost slightly burnt malt. Though I am more of a hop head than a malt kind of guy, I really enjoyed this. A very good session beer that rewards with ample flavor.

On a side note, the BA tasting notes say that this beer has 5% alcohol by volume. According to Pennsylvania Brewery's web page it is only 4%.

12 ouncer sampled, some sort of feshness dating, but just having the first letters of the months along one side of the label doesnt do much for me.( bottled on? best before?, what year are we talking about???, c'mon brewers out there we can give better info w/o that much trouble) Alright my ranting is done, this one pours dark honey amber, a tad murky, with an off white/tan head and it leaves nice fine and well scattered lacing. Nose is toffee and brown sugar. this is a tasty sweet malty brew. Notes of vanilla, toffee, some nuttyness and sweet malts. Clean finish, free of esters and phenolics, minimal hop notes detected. I'm not really a huge lager drinker, but this clearly is a quality product and a worthwhile sessioner

Presentation: 12oz. amber bottle with what appears to be a freshness dating marked on the back. "If you were going to spend eternity drinking beer, this would be the one." Hmmm....we'll see.

Appearance: A very, very dark brown brown/deep amber color on the pour. An amazingly creamy head appears and in addition to lacing the glass in a patchy sort of way, it also lasts the entire trip to the bottom of the glass.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied with a smooth and just slightly crisp finish.

Drinkability: An excellent lager. I'm not usually one for this style of beer, but Penn's Dark has carved a niche in my heart. With just a slight aftertaste, this one is very easy to keep drinking. A pleasant surprise from the folks at Penn.

Have this on my draft system currantly,always review my drafts, even if i had in bottled version as this one for a future referance.
Poured into a nonic glass.
Mahogany color with a reddish hue,clear with a slight haze. Dense,creamy light tan head with good retention leaving clingy webby lacing down the glass.

Dark fruit aromas at first wiff,followed by a nice moderate maltiness,roasty/nutty hints of chocolate with some light smokeyness.Earthy with a fresh baked bread note.

Clean taste with fruity notes at first turning roasty with powdered chocolate and a slight burnt edge. Very nice balance with a clean,crisp finish.

Full bodied with a light mouthfeel and some grainyness. Very smooth and refreshing. A real crowd pleaser,not a beer i would want to drink all night,but won't complain a bit if I had to.

My son who lives in Pittsburgh and knows my love for dark beer bought me a case of this for Christmas last year at the Penn Brewery. I used to be able to find it in my local distributors near Philly but since 2008 it has disappeared. The Penn Dark I used to purchase locally prior to 2009 was somewhat richer in flavor and aroma, but the 2012 version was definitely fresher which is important for this style.

This review is based on the newer 2012 batch. It pours a medium brown with light tan head that persists during the session. Aroma is sweet malt with aromatic notes of vanilla. The taste is a quick burst of roasted malt and hints of vanilla with a rather polite short lived bitter after note. I still like it slightly better than the locally available dunkel from Sly Fox but not enough to drive for 5 hours.

I've drank a lot of Penn Darks (mostly on tap) over the years, but haven't done a review since I've joined B.A, so thanks to P. D. for the bottle. Clear dark amber appearance, head is light brown and frothy, like steamed milk on a latte. Laces are mostly rings with some interconnecting tendrils. Malty aroma, biscuity with some sense of light honey. Texture is fun, if lighter, some medium-toasted graininess plays in concert with a solid if non-complex caramel flavor. The finish is best, dries slightly with well-done hop balance. Just a solid Dark Lager, brings back the memories.

I must say that in the past, I have boughten a whole case of this stuff and believe me that case was worth it. Each one of those beers were fully enjoyed by all, so now it's time to return to this old favorite and break it down. Appears a very dark nearly opaque with hints of ruby piercing through around the edges when held up to the light. Paired with a tan moccha head, which is binding to the rim of the forming even annular rings of lace as the glass empties. The aroma has some semi-faint fruit tones wrapped in a mild milk chocolate bringing creamy malt to the forefront. Also some of the darker roasted malts are also doing their part allowing a toasted nut scent to dance in the air. The taste leaves me with that creamy milk chocolate sweetness around my lips, along with the trickled chocolate and mild coffee tones comes a crisp smooth lager-like characteristic making this one amazingly smooth. The mouthfeel is full of those creamy sensations down the palate of this fairly heavy bodied beer. Drinkability I would love to find this on tap just to see if it gets any frothier than it already is, and I would like to experiment with mixing this with some Lindemann's Framboise.

A- This beer has a dense but clear walnut brown body with a slight amber red hint to it in the light. There is a strong carbonation of big bubbles and a perfectly smooth creamy light tan head that last and last.

S- This beer has a smooth but soft green hop note with a soft biscuit malt note in the background.

T- This beer has a smooth dry pale malt with lightly toasted malt flavor. There are some pot caramel note and the dry biscuit flavor comes through with a finish of bitterness that might be from hops or from dark malt it is hard to tell.

M- This beer has a medium mouthfeel with a light dry finish.

D- This beer has very soft flavors and some dark malt notes but not much depth to them.

A nice dark brown, without a trace of haze. Smells a bit malty sweet, but it's not too heavy. Really wish there were a bit more nose on this one. Luckily, it tastes pretty wonderful. There's an almost coffee-like roasting on it that gives it a wonderfully rich flavor.

Which gives it a shockingly drinkable quality. Almost like having a cup of coffee, only it's beer. This is good stuff.

A--Pours a deep brown, dark chocolate body with a finger and a half tan head that dies quickly to a ring. Head was denser than I anticipated, however, and left some nice dots and speckles in the glass.

S--Mostly dates, with a hint of licorice and tobacco toward the back of the nose. A little bit of must from the yeast.

T--Up front the malt gives you some soy sauce and beef jerky (not much of either, but they're there) before being cut by a tang of beautiful lager yeast and a bright, brief hop bitterness that has a twinge of fruit, maybe plum? Throughout there are considerable whole-grain flavors from dark, molasses-rich bread. Very satisfying on the barley end of things, and the malt vinegar early on makes this brew memorable.

M&D--Seltzer water. That, to me, is exactly what the mouthfeel mimics. It's kind of refreshing, but I'd like something a little less bubbly and a little more sturdy. Drinkability shines as is typical for a lager--worthy of a keg and a giant pyramid of stacked steins.

I tried this beer because I had a Warsteiner dunkel at an outdoor German Christmas market and, before that, a Penn Pilsner at a Pirates game at PNC park. I had tried neither the Munich dark style nor the brewery before these two, and having liked both I was stoked to see I could combine them. The result is impressive. Looking forward to trying more of Penn's offerings.